Disappointed California fans look on as Stanford celebrates its 21-3 win in the 115th annual Big Game on Saturday October 20, 2012 in Berkeley, CA.

Disappointed California fans look on as Stanford celebrates its 21-3 win in the 115th annual Big Game on Saturday October 20, 2012 in Berkeley, CA.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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Stanford players with the Axe after they beat Cal 21-3 at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday, Oct.20th, 2012

Stanford players with the Axe after they beat Cal 21-3 at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday, Oct.20th, 2012

Photo: John Storey, Special To The Chronicle

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The Stanford band plays after a touchdown during the Stanford vs. Cal game at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday, Oct.20th, 2012

The Stanford band plays after a touchdown during the Stanford vs. Cal game at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday, Oct.20th, 2012

Photo: John Storey / Special To The Chronicle

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Niners fans find many ways to get a spirited start before games, which can sometimes lead to fights and ejections.

Niners fans find many ways to get a spirited start before games, which can sometimes lead to fights and ejections.

Photo: Stephen Lam, Special To The Chronicle

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Niners fans find many ways to get a spirited start before games, which can sometimes lead to fights and ejections.

Niners fans find many ways to get a spirited start before games, which can sometimes lead to fights and ejections.

Photo: Bryan Thomas

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A Stanford player strikes the ball against his USC opponent during a college squash tournament on the south lawn at Justin Herman Plaza. It served as a warm-up to an international event going on through Tuesday. less

A Stanford player strikes the ball against his USC opponent during a college squash tournament on the south lawn at Justin Herman Plaza. It served as a warm-up to an international event going on through ... more

Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle

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Cal and Stanford students clash during Big Game weekend on the clear court.

Cal and Stanford students clash during Big Game weekend on the clear court.

Photo: Rashad Sisemore, The Chronicle

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Pac-12's conflict softens Big Game

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Big Game Week lasted seven days this year, ending in a football game.

But that was about all we could recognize from years gone by.

In scheduling the Bay Area's greatest annual sports tradition a month earlier than usual, the Pac-12 Conference did a great disservice to its fans. There are plenty of logistical reasons they had to move the game up, but none of them excuse the result.

No bonfire. No joint coaches interviews. No buzz until gametime.

Even then, it felt like the wrong day to play. The weather was too nice. And it didn't feel like there was enough on the line.

Stanford carried the day, 21-3, as expected. But the scoreless second half was a faithful reflection of a lackluster week.

This just shouldn't happen for the Big Game. Happily, it won't happen again for at least two more years.

According to the Pac-12, the big sticking point was the 14-week season the conference scheduled this year. In doing so, late-season legacy games such as USC-Notre Dame and TV scheduling conflicts caused too many issues to resolve. Something had to give. And, this year, it was the Big Game.

Cal and Stanford were given the option of playing the game during Thanksgiving week, but they declined. And, so, Big Game Week fell flat, competing against the Giants and 49ers for a spot in the collective consciousness. It came in a distant third.

To their credit, Pac-12 officials acknowledged the problem.

"Obviously, both schools didn't want it this early, nor did the conference," said Pac-12 deputy commissioner Kevin Weiberg. "We much prefer these games to be at the end of the season, as well. But this is a complicated puzzle to piece together.

"I'm fairly confident we won't be looking at dates this high in the schedule for future rivalry games that get changed," said Weiberg. "We would hope that these games could all be accommodated in November."

OK. That sounds promising.

Starting next season, the Big Game should return to its usual spot, the third week of November. And it will probably stay there in 2014. That's because the conference will be scheduling 15-week seasons for the next two years, giving it some more breathing room in the scheduling department.

But in 2015, the conference returns to a 14-week grid for a three-year stretch. During that time, the plan is to rotate which big rivalry gets bumped forward. One year, maybe the Washingtons will play early. Maybe the Oregons or Southern California teams get bumped up the schedule. But the onus could also land on Cal-Stanford again.

A recent meeting of Pac-12 athletic directors created a protocol for handling those future decisions. It basically boils down to all the schools sharing the pain.

One unexpected consequence of all the commotion surrounding rivalry games is this: The Pac-12's efforts to link up with the Big 10 for nonconference games has been shelved for the time being.

Good. College football is all about tradition. And those traditions are increasingly lost in a world of mega-conferences and billion-dollar TV deals.

Bring back some sanity to college football. And don't make Big Game Week a big, lame week ... ever again.

Violence at games is black eye for football fans

Adding insult to the injury of the displaced Big Game, Bay Area football fans took a roundhouse punch to their reputations this past week.

ESPN's "Outside the Lines" show ran a lengthy piece on the proliferation of fan violence at NFL stadiums. The lead anecdote was the case of one Manuel Austin, a 66-year-old Bay Area man who says he was beaten severely at Candlestick last season during the Pittsburgh game.

Manuel's case, which unfolded during the infamous Monday night blackout at Candlestick last season, was shocking. And the show leaned heavily on fight videos taken at Candlestick and the Oakland Coliseum. Both venues came off as a cross between Mad Max and the Wild West.

Anybody who's been to either stadium in recent years can relate on some level. Let's face it: The NFL doesn't attract the wine and cheese set anymore. It's a rough group that parties in the parking lots, and that can be said for stadiums across the country.

I took a stroll through the parking lots before Thursday's 49ers-Seahawks game. Fans were getting drunk. There was some name-calling between opposing fans. But it seemed fairly controlled.

"We had 68 ejections, 19 people arrested for public intoxication," said SFPD spokesperson Albie Esparza. "We had 10 to 12 people who went to sobering pens. We had four felony arrests: one battery, one criminal threat and two narcotics possessions."

"And no officers were injured."

Sounds like a rough night. But it's actually pretty typical.

"It didn't seem as bad as some previous games," said Esparza. "There's been other games where there's definitely been more activity. We've had shootings. Fights in the stands."

Yikes. What's going on out there, folks?

Apparently, all kinds of stuff. Additional police statistics on ejections alone show that 50-plus ejections per game is pretty standard. Last year's NFC Championship Game saw more than 100 fans thrown out.

But like any good story, there are two sides. Stacey Samuels, 62, is known around Bay Area ballgames as the Banjo Man. You've probably seen him at A's and 49ers games for years, strumming his banjo with a propeller hat on.

He's not buying the story that Bay Area football fans are out of control.

"It is pretty chill," Samuels said. "I've been walking these lots for years. People are cool. There's 1 percent in every crowd. It's an aberration."

Could be. But what do the opposing fans say?

Seattle natives Nick Viskovich and Todd Palmerton were having a few beers before Thursday's game, wearing Seahawks jerseys, to boot. They hadn't been harassed, but had some healthy skepticism about the scene.

"I'll say this much," Viskovich said. "It's early."

His buddy was wearing a Giants baseball cap to hedge his bets.

"We've been coming here for years, and it's gotten a little worse," said Palmerton, 34. "Last year, some friends of ours - Chicago Bears fans - were attacked. That's not cool."

Other Seattle fans said that they felt safe Thursday, but that it was a different feeling on weekends. "It's more of a business crowd on Thursdays," said one.

Just down the way, Yolanda Rogers was working as a security guard in one of the parking lots. She has worked at Candlestick for three years and was incredulous about the unruly-behavior accusations.

"I don't know what they're talking about," Rogers said. "I never have any problems out here. And I'm a single black female with all these men out here."

It's clearly an experiential situation out at the stadiums. If something happens to you, it feels like chaos. If you get by unscathed, it all sounds like bunk.

Both Bay Area teams and the respective police departments involved are giving the issue serious attention. But corralling that many drinkers on any given Sunday, or Thursday, can be challenging. It's a work in progress.

In the spirit of fair play, we'll gave Raiders President Amy Trask the last word here, culled from a statement she sent to ESPN.

"We are absolutely committed to providing a safe, secure, family friendly environment, and we will remain committed and relentless in our efforts to do so. ... Every single team - in every single league - has a handful of fans that do not behave appropriately. ... The vast, vast, vast majority of Raiders fans are terrific men and women and children, and I will stand up for them as long as I have breath. We should all know better than to stereotype."

Mama Lynch don't play

One Seahawks fan not getting harassed on the way into Candlestick the other day was Marshawn Lynch's mother, Delisa Lynch.

We ran into her shepherding a group of 10 people through the crowds, wearing a Seattle jersey with her son's No. 24 on it. The back simply read: "Mama Lynch."

Marshawn's mother raised him in a rough patch of Oakland and has been his biggest supporter through the years. She also offered one of my all-time favorite quotes last year, following her son's famous run in the playoffs after the 2010 season.

"I wasn't at the game," Delisa told me at the time. "But I was going crazy at home. I just kept rewinding it, and rewinding it. I told Marshawn they gonna get me for child abuse how many times I made him run!"

A few days after that game, Delisa was at Walmart looking at a wall of big-screen TVs. Every one was replaying her son's epic 67-yard run.

Great quote. Great lady. When I asked her if she was getting harassed at Candlestick on Thursday, she didn't skip a beat.

"They just showering me with love, baby!" Mama Lynch said.

Note to 49ers fans: Keep up the good work. Cause you don't want to mess with Marshawn ... or his Mama.

The Big Squash

Squash. It's not just for dinner anymore.

In fact, you can see some of the best squash players in the world playing right on San Francisco's Embarcadero this weekend. Just look for the giant Plexiglas cube erected on the south lawn of Justin Herman Plaza.

That's right. Software company executive Evan Goldberg, and his colleagues at NetSuite, helped foot the bill to erect the traveling court, in turn attracting a $70,000 single-elimination tournament featuring 16 players from the Professional Squash Association's world rankings.

Cal and Stanford played an exhibition Saturday in the massive cube - The Big Squash? - with Stanford taking home bragging rights.

The 18,000-pound, 32-by-20-foot court has walls of 12-millimeter tempered glass with a special ceramic fired into the interior surface that allows the players to see a colored, nearly opaque wall from the inside, while spectators outside the court view through clear glass. It has an electronic scoreboard, a 42-inch TV, two 50-inch LCD screens and a six-speaker sound system.

So, who's the best squash player in the world? An Englishman named James Willstrop owns the No. 1 ranking.

The Big Splash

While the Big Game was a washout for Cal, the Bears did just fine in the water as they defeated Stanford 14-8 in water polo's Big Splash on Saturday at Spieker Aquatic Complex in Berkeley.

Junior Collin Smith pumped in six goals for Cal, three of them in the third period when the Bears took control of the game. Cal improved to 10-6 while Stanford is 8-4.

"There have been some great performances in Big Splash history, and Collin's six goals today is definitely one of them," Cal coach Kirk Everist said.

Stanford took a 4-3 lead after the first period as Alex Bowen fired in three goals. Cal put the game away in the second half by outscoring Stanford 7-4.

- John Crumpacker

Fan ejections

Number of fans ejected at 49ers home games in 2011:

Date

Opp

Ejections

8/20/11

Raiders

70+

8/27/11

Texans

32

9/11/11

Seahawks

52

9/18/11

Cowboys

49

10/9/11

Bucs

32

10/30/11

Browns

46

11/13/11

Giants

58

11/20/11

Cardinals

32

12/4/11

Rams

38

12/19//11

Steelers

57

1/14/12

Saints

54

1/22/12

Giants

110

Source: San Francisco Police Department

Al Saracevic is The Chronicle's Sporting Green editor. You can e-mail him at asaracevic@sfchronicle.com.